Two years ahead of construction, the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has started working to inform the community about a fish passage project that will significantly impact drivers and businesses in the area of Guide Meridian and Interstate 5 in north Bellingham.
The project entails the removal of five barriers to fish passage in Baker Creek and Spring Creek, two tributaries of Squalicum Creek that cross under I-5 and State Route 539 (Meridian Street).
“This is a huge undertaking,” Chris Damitio, the WSDOT assistant regional administrator, told the Bellingham City Council during a public works committee meeting on Monday, June 17.
The existing creek culverts are the wrong size and shape to accommodate fish moving up or downstream, and the tunnel under the interstate is too dark and 400 feet long. Kirsten McDade, the North Sound waterkeeper for local conservation nonprofit RE Sources, explained to CDN that more fish-appropriate culverts or underpasses generally have natural bottoms like a streambed, the appropriate grade, more daylight and an outgoing section that doesn’t involve a high drop.
The I-5 project will provide access to an estimated 4.3 miles of potential fish habitat. WSDOT is currently in the preliminary engineering phase. The project, estimated to cost $85 million in federal funds, will be contracted out to a design-builder in 2025, with construction to begin in spring 2026. During construction, there will be periodic lane reductions on the interstate and on State Route 539, on- and off-ramp closures and restricted access to East Bellis Fair Mall Parkway.
After the WSDOT presentation on June 17, Mayor Kim Lund expressed her concern that the construction would coincide with significant traffic during the cross-border FIFA World Cup soccer competition, which includes matches in Seattle and Vancouver. (Seattle news outlets are predicting 750,000 visitors during the tournament.) Project engineer Megan Mosebar said WSDOT is working on a regional plan that addresses World Cup traffic.
Not only will the Baker and Spring Creek barrier correction cause traffic impacts, but it is also one of the most expensive fish passage projects WSDOT has initiated since the program began in 1991. Throughout western Washington, there are a bevy of manmade barriers on waterways that restrict or block salmon and trout access to historic spawning and rearing habitat. In 2013 the U.S. District Court issued a permanent injunction requiring the state to accelerate barrier correction.
A progress report published by WSDOT earlier this year says the agency has removed 146 injunction barriers, opening 569 miles of potential fish habitat, and plans to have more than 200 more barrier corrections under contract by summer 2024, which will restore 75% of blocked habitat.
Completed in 2022, the $31.3 million Padden Creek project replaced two small, shallow culverts under I-5 and 30th Street with span bridges designed to restore access to upstream habitat for chum, coho, steelhead, kokanee and trout, and improve the wildlife corridor. In the last two years, the upgrade has reduced the risk of vehicle-wildlife collisions, because the new underpass allows enough room for deer.
On June 17, Damitio said “we always see an increase in fish numbers,” but according to a 2023 WSDOT fish passage evaluation, post-project surveys in Padden Creek in November 2022 and January 2023 didn’t find any fish, dead or alive.
McDade said it can take a few years to determine the efficacy of a fish passage project. She acknowledged that the Baker and Spring Creek projects won’t magically restore the waterways to high-quality habitat. In the industrialized north Bellingham area, not only are the culverts not designed for fish, but the creek water has low levels of dissolved oxygen, is too warm, and is polluted with run-off, all deterrents to fish, especially the salmon species the 2013 injunction focused on.
She said she hopes to see the inclusion of stormwater filtration systems in the WSDOT project to stop tire dust, or 6PPD-quinone, from going into the creeks. Tire dust is a toxic chemical deadly to coho salmon.
The Squalicum Creek watershed has been the site of major city-led restoration projects to enhance habitat. McDade would like to see more work going toward that creek and its tributaries in the future, which will require participation from other jurisdictions including the railroad.
“I’m an optimist, I’m excited to see this project,” McDade said about the I-5 fish passage. “It’ll be worth the traffic in the long term. I’m a huge proponent of returning systems to their natural state as much as we can.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Baker and Spring Creeks have too much dissolved oxygen, when they actually have too little. The story was updated to reflect this change at 8:06 a.m. on June 24, 2024. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
